A team of highly respected proprietary traders have left Japanese bank Nomura and set up two companies that sources say may engage in high-frequency trading.

Jebu Rajan, who joined Nomura in 2010 from Credit Suisse, where he was head of the high and medium-frequency quantitative trading groups, left the Japanese bank on September 28, according to the Financial Services Authority Register.

He was a managing director in Nomura’s equities quantitative trading team, which trades the bank’s own capital using computer-driven, heavily analytical techniques.

Other traders from the team who have left include Philip Saks and Emmett Cawley, according to the FSA Register. Last month, the trio established a new company, called CRS Capital Services.

In addition, Rajan and Saks have established a second company, Quantrium Services, according to UK company filings.

Though details about the intended activities of the companies were not disclosed, the group is considering setting up trading activities, according to one source close to the situation.

The team had operated under Christian Dalban, who joined Nomura as its head of equity trading for Emea in June 2010, from US hedge fund Millennium Management.

The departures come as banks scale back proprietary trading activities, to comply with US regulations known as the Volcker rule. Nomura is also planning to reduce costs by up to $1bn in its wholesale division by March 2014.

Nomura declined to comment. Rajan, Saks and Cawley could not be reached for comment.